Out in the Mountains

Eleanor Roosevelt,

Volume One, 1884-1933, by Blanche Wlesen Cook, Viking Press

Deborah Lashrnan

Not only is Blanche Cook's biography of
Eleanor Roosevelt one of the best biog-
raphies I’ve read, it also is a welcome
breath of fresh air after all these years of
biographers and essayists either ignoring,
tiptoing around, or trying to explain away
Roosevelt’s lesbian identity.

In the biographical sketch accompanying
the centennial collection of essays on
Roosevelt, Without Precedent, an oth-
erwise admiring William Chafe, tries to
explain away references to lesbianism.
This after the publication of Lorena Hick-
ok’s papers in 1978. Even Hickok’s biog-
rapher, Doris Faber, treats the topic with
distaste in her afterword. Describing her
discovery of Roosevelt’s letters to Hickok
and discussion with her husband and the
director of the FDR library about sup-
pressing the material, she says “I behaved
emotionally, interrupting them to say they
were missing the point (in considering the
implications of a branch of the National
Archives suppressing any material against
the stated wish of the donor)...Eleanor
Roosevelt was a great woman, and her ef-
fusively affectionate letters should be re-
moved at least until the year 2000.”

Cook, on the other hand, deals with the
topic of Roosevelt’s close friendships
with lesbian couples and her relationship
with Hickok, (not to mention with Earl
Miller) in a clear, frank and unbiased
manner. What emerges is portrait of a
much fuller person than that portrayed in
earlier biographies.

In her introduction, Cook describes the
Roosevelt she found in her ten years of re-
search. “As I considered Eleanor Roose-
velt it was necessary to confront certain
stereotypes that have limited our under-
standing. A vastly enhanced picture
emerges. She was a dutiful wife, and also
a submissive daughter-in -law. She was

an unprepared and unhappy mother, and a
daughter devoted to an illusory father. She
was also a woman in struggle, dedicated to
modernity. A feminist leader and com-
petitive politician, she was a woman with
power who enjoyed power. She was, in her
own words, ‘an adventurer’ .“

Cook also uses the life of Roosevelt to il-
luminate issues about women and pow-
er,.“The vigor of contempt and rage elicit-
ed by Eleanor Roosevelt continues to
frame much of the discomse about wom-
en with power, access to power, or the ap-

pearance of power.”

Perhaps most importantly, Cook gives a
new generation of women a model to fol-
low as she describes Roosevelt as a, “bell-
weather for our belief system. A woman
who insists on her right to self-identity, a
woman who creates herself over and over
again, a woman of consummate power
and courageous vision continues to chal-
lenge our sense of what is acceptable and
what is possible.” She continues, “Elean-
or Roosevelt consciously, deterrninedly,
joined that historical tradition about
which Muriel Rukeyser wrote: “What
would happen if one woman told the truth
about her life? The world would split

9

open.

Cook documents Roosevelt’s long history
of political involvement and growth, put-
ting to rest once and for all the myth that
she was only following in FDR’s foot-
steps. In fact, many of the programs as-
sociated with FDR’s New Deal first ap-
peared in the 1924 Democratic women’s
platform which Eleanor Roosevelt wrote.
“For almost fifty years, she was a very
tough politician. Above all, she was the
leading woman politician...actually the
‘women's boss’ of the Democratic party.”

On the topic of the relationship between
Hickok and Roosevelt, Cook sums it up
as follows: “Lorena Alice Hickok was the

foremost woman reporter in the United
States and one of the greatest American
journalists of either sex...E.R. and Hick
were not involved in a ‘schoolgirl smash’.
They did not meet in a nineteenth century
storybook...They were neither saints nor
adolescents. Nor were they virgins or
mermaids. They were two adult women,
in the prime of their lives, committed to
working out a relationship under very dif-
ficult circumstances. They had already
lived several other lives. They knew the
score. They appreciated the risks and dan-
gers. They had both experienced pain in
loving. They never thought it would be
easy or smooth. They gave each other
pleasure and comfort, trust and love. They
touched each other deeply, loved pro-
foundly. They sought to avoid gossip.
And, for the most part, they succeeded. ”
Quoting from a letter Hickok wrote to
Roosevelt, “Only eight more days...Furmy
how even the dearest face will fade away
in time. Most clearly I remember your
eyes, with a kind of teasing smile in them,
and the feeling of that soft spot just north-
east of the corner of your mouth against
my lips...”. She then concludes, "They
wrote to each other exactly what they
meant to write. Sigmund Freud not-
withstanding: A cigar may not always be
a cigar, but the ‘northeast corner of your
mouth against my lips’ is always the
northeast comer.”

Ever the scrupulous historian, Cook is
careful to note gaps in evidence and let
the reader know where she is drawing in-
ferences. However, her portrayal of the
record is as valid as those previously and
certainly presents a more complete, re-
alistic person that other biographers.

Volume One takes us from Roosevelt’s
birth to FDR’s inauguration as President
I finished this volume with a mixture of
delight and disappointment. Delight in the
history, the excellence of the writing, and
the rediscovering of a model, and dis-
appointment that I’ll have to wait until
next year for the second volume. V

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